A Little Fall Color for Thanksgiving

This post has few words - just photos of the Oakleaf Hydrangea looking good in its first autumn in Texas soil
and another look at the 'Marilyn's Choice' Abutilon...a plant that grew large but bloomed little since spring. The buds began to form on the abutilon almost as soon as the first leaves fell from the pecan tree, which may be a sign that its spot is too shady.
Whatever the trigger, this Abutilon is now covered in flowers
just in time for freeze warnings on Friday.
This is the abutilon's first year in my garden- can Marilyn keep blooming after a freeze?)
The fig tree made a small, late crop following the 12" rain in September. These 3 figs are almost ripe. Shall I pick them now or take a chance on a freeze?
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you from Philo & Annie

Ride on the Trace

A little behind in my blogging. Friday, I needed to get out to ride.
Had my free Veteran's Day breakfast at Hy-Vee. Then it was lunch with the fraternity alumni chapter. There's when the frustration started. Suffice it to say that some of the guys are still living in the 40s with their political thinking. Not to mention the Rush "ditto-head" in the group.
I needed out and take a ride to clear my head. Figured the weather would per good for a ride on The Trace. I was having problems - way slow. Realized the the trail is a bit soft. Rough pedaling. Only rode from Silver Sity to Silver Creek and back.
It was also a bit late when i had started, so the sun was getting low in the sky. Happy to get in my ride, short as it was.

Company

It's not often these days I have company on my rides. It seems my climbing tendencies tend to drive more people away than they attract. It was a chance meeting with another rider in Tallebudgera Valley which made things a little different this morning (and resulted in me taking just one picture today). However, the biggest surprise was when this old guy decided to join me on the climb of Ducats Road. It's sometimes surprising just how quickly a climb like that can be done when you have two riders trying to show off their climbing prowess, while trying to maintain a conversation between breaths.
Actually, I wasn't totally upset that the climb shortened conversation here. Just before this climb, he was telling me about a 91km/h crash he'd had on the 22% descent of Trees Road (which was what we would descent after Ducats Road). It didn't stop me clocking 76.6km/h on the descent, but I'm not sure I'd want to do it much faster (I hit 84km/h on that once). Still, sometimes it's good to share tales about places you've been, or share frustrations about Queensland drivers, or the fact that so few cyclists around here ever venture away from the flat coastal regions.
Maybe I should ride socially more often.

Daylily garden

I knew, in a theoretical kind of way, that there were a lot of varieties of Daylilies. It didn't really prevent my non-stop gaping at a Daylily garden, though.

One of our wildflower group couples gave us a tour of their garden this week.

Their main focus is Daylilies -- they have hundreds of them.

I doubt I'll ever be as dedicated a gardener.

But I'm lucky to have friends who are.

All the types were labeled, but non-dedicated non-gardener that I am, I didn't take down any names.

If you're dying to know about any particular one, I can probably find out.
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Daylilies are Hemerocallis sp. The name in Greek is a combination of Hemera (day) and Kallos (beautiful).
I wrote about words using Kallos before, when talking about Beautyberry. Every time I come across it in a botanical name, I still crack up, remembering that comment about a track team and their cry of "Callipygious!"

Jerusalem 200

Yesterday I needed a big ride, and I also felt like revisiting Mt Jerusalem. The only thing for it was to turn the old Mt Jerusalem ride into a 200km ride. There had been gale warnings on the weather forecast, but one thing I've noticed about "extreme" weather forecasts in this part of the world is that they consistently overstate the situation. So it proved yesterday, I set off with three hours sleep thanks to some drunken neighbours, and just decided to focus on discipline and riding myself into it during the early part of the ride.

After clearing the southern end of suburbia, I headed out through Urliup, skirted around Murwillumbah, where a hoon convention was on according to some signage, and headed for Reserve Creek Road. There are a couple of shortish climbs here, and I noted the return of the greenery after the dry spell during June/July/August. While the gale warnings had overstated things, the wind that did appear was quite invigorating, the ride took on a feeling of something I 'needed'.

The next object was the climb over Cudgera creek road -- around 190 metres on a dirt road with a heap of switchbacks, before a sharp descent into Burringbar. My cornering on the descent was poor, but not enough to present any major problems. Soon I resumed the journey south as far as Billinudgel (where the three-year roadwork "project" has finally been completed), before heading west over the hill toward Main Arm, where I would turn north for the days main event.


The climb of Mt Jerusalem is always a challenge with gradients exceeding 10% on dirt roads. It also leads to the highest point on this ride (274m). There was a little mud around as a shower had passed over a few minutes earlier, but the southern approach has a unique feel all of it's own with the combination of forest and the old hippie cottages. There are also little surprises in the forest if one keeps their eyes open. There are plenty of opportunities to see them, as it's a climb that really requires settling in and grinding for a while.


Descending Jerusalem is the exact opposite of the climb in more ways than one. While the climb is a grinding affair, the descent is a fast, furious, white-knuckle affair. Fortunately I had warmed up descending Cudgera Creek Road earlier. I was also fortunate that the kombi-driving idiot who didn't know which side of the road he was supposed to be on didn't show up until I'd completed the descent and returned to a flat, sealed road along the bottom. It didn't take long after this to reach Uki, and food and water.

After Uki it was just a matter of catching the tailwind home, and finding enough detours to accumulate the 200km I needed. I detoured along the hilly Bakers Road in skirting the hoon convention in Murwillumbah once before, before heading across to Tumbulgum, then doubling back to return home through the John Hogan rainforest, before mopping up the last 30km of suburbia. All in all an extremely memorable day, and something I need to more often. Just how I'll find time to do that along with all the other places I "need" to ride is another matter.

Waco and Austin Texas

Stop for a lunch break in Waco, Texas had a hankering for some Beef!



Stopped at a place called Homestead Heritage Village which is touted as a working farm with Craftsman and Arts and Crafts. It sort of had that kool-aid feel about itbut they did do some nice woodworking building beautiful pieces of furniture with only hand tools. The goats were cute too!

Hey! Look who's steering!



The Waco Suspension Bridge Built in 1870 is still used as a pedestrian crossing over the Brazos River



Austin, Texas is next.



Visit the Elisabet Ney Museum. National Historic Site and Studio of the famed German sculptress who immigrated to Texas in the 1870's. Her works stand in European Palaces, US Capitols and the Smithsonian.





Our "Hike a Day" is in the Zilker Botanical Gardens which contains a phenomenal Japanese Garden with bridges and stone paths across numerous koi ponds.







No evening in Austin is complete without a trip to the Ann Richards Congress Avenue Bridge - Home to 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats. They exit in mass from under the bridge just after sunset from March thru October.








Bryce Canyon

Here we are at Byrce Canyon overlooking the Amphitheater. It is actually not a Canyon,created by erosion byfrost in rock crevicesand the dissolving power of rainwater have shaped the colorful limestone rock of the Claron Formation into bizarre shapes including slot canyons, windows, fins, and spires called "hoodoos."

It was named after the Mormon Pioneer Ebenezer Bryce one of the early settlers inthe Valley below. He said it was a hell of a place to lose a cow.

The weather is beautiful and the place is hopping so we head straight to the only campground open. We are lucky to fit into one of the last 2 sites remaining!























Time to start up the Hike a Day!

Till Later!

Meanwhile, we keep on Trek'n

Melissa & Gary